There’s something about a full moon that makes me pause. Whether you believe in the energy behind it or not, you have to admit—things just feel different.
This past Friday night, with the full moon in Scorpio hanging quietly overhead, my daughter Jordyn and I found ourselves on FaceTime. She’s a night owl, and I’m usually in bed by 9 p.m., but that night we decided she’d join me in my little full moon ritual. What started as something light and playful turned into something unexpectedly meaningful.
For my birthday this year, she gave me the cutest little cat tarot card deck. It wasn’t meant to be taken too seriously—more of a “let’s have fun with this” kind of gift. So that night, we decided to pull a card.
I shuffled while we talked, not overthinking it, just letting it feel natural. Then I pulled a card and immediately reached for the little booklet to find its meaning.
The Ten of Cups.
On the card, there’s this sweet little cat gazing at a rainbow of stacked cups—colorful, balanced, almost too perfect to ignore. As I started reading the meaning out loud, something about happiness, family harmony, and emotional fulfillment, Jordyn stopped me.
“Mom,” she said, “I feel like that resonates with you more than it does me.”
And she was right.
Because if I’m honest, that message hit something deep. In a quiet, confirming way. I thought for a moment and then nodded, yes… that’s exactly it.
Fostering healthy relationships; especially within family has become one of the most important things to me. Not because it’s always easy (it’s not), but because I’ve learned how much intention it takes. You don’t just have strong relationships—you build them. You show up. You put in the effort, even when it’s inconvenient, even when it’s messy.
And I truly believe that what you put into a relationship is what you get back.
That doesn’t mean everything is always equal or perfect. It doesn’t mean you won’t feel disappointed sometimes. But over time, the energy you bring; the care, the honesty, the boundaries, the willingness to grow, it all shapes what that relationship becomes.
That’s what the Ten of Cups felt like to me. Not some fairytale ending where everything magically falls into place, (even though the card literally says “happily ever after” lol), but a reminder that happiness is something you actively create. It’s found in the effort. In choosing connection over ego. In choosing understanding over being right. In choosing to keep showing up.
And maybe that’s why it filled me with so much optimism.
Because it wasn’t telling me to find happiness—it was reflecting back what I’m already trying to build.
The conversations, small, consistent acts of care.
Even something as simple as sitting on the phone with your daughter on a Friday night, laughing over a deck of cat tarot cards under a full moon.
That counts.
That matters.
So, whether you believe in tarot cards or not, I think there’s something worth holding onto here; pay attention to what feels meaningful. Sometimes the message isn’t in the card itself, it’s in the moment, the connection, the pause.
And if you’re putting genuine effort into the relationships that matter to you, don’t underestimate what you’re building.
It might not always look like a perfect rainbow of cups.
But it’s yours—and that’s where the real happiness lives.
The Other Side of Nice 